EXCLUSIVE: The cockpit communication aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight can be revealed, from its taxi on the runway to its final message at 1.07am of ‘all right, good night’. The transcript starts at 00.25 with general instructions from the control tower to the pilots. The detailed conversation begins at 00.36.
MH-370 makes contact with ATC
MH-370 makes contact with the control tower, which typically directs planes by sight from the tower
MH-370 waits to taxi to the runway
MH-370 directed by air traffic control to stay in a holding position on the airfield before moving on to the runway
MH-370 given permission to take its runway starting position from the runway’s “32R A10” entry point before flying
Cockpit acknowledges clearance to take off and farewells the ground tower before making contact with the next air traffic controller, who uses radar to control the broader air space
MH-370 instructed to turn toward ‘IGARI’
The plane’s altitude of 18,000 feet and routing is confirmed and it is instructed to turn toward “Igari”, a navigational waypoint above the sea almost halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam
The cockpit is told that it has left the area covered by the airport tower controller and is instructed to change to the frequency to that of the succeeding Malaysian traffic controller
Air traffic control gives the plane clearance to ascend to 25,000 feet
The cockpit is given clearance to ascend to 35,000 feet
MH-370 reaches cruising altitude
MH-370 advises it has now reached its cruising altitude of 35,000ft
The cockpit advises it is remaining at 35,000 feet – this is an unnecessary but not especially unusual call
MH-370 instructed to switch to Vietnamese ATC
As the plane approaches Vietnam, Malaysian air traffic controllers advise that the plane should switch to a new frequency controlled by Vietnamese air traffic controllers
In its final known communication, the cockpit – apparently the co-pilot – acknowledges the instruction in relaxed terms rather than with a formal call
The last 54 minutes of cockpit communication aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 can be disclosed by The Telegraph.
A transcript of conversations between the co-pilot and the control tower, and other air traffic controllers, runs from the time the Boeing 777 was taxiing to its last known position thousands of feet above the South China Sea.
It includes exchanges from a point at which investigators believe the plane had already been sabotaged, as well as the last words of Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, the co-pilot: “All right, good night.”
Analysts said the sequence of messages appeared “perfectly routine”. However two features, they said, stood out as potentially odd.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
